Care worker 'panicked' after medication error

A CARE home worker has admitted neglect of a resident who died after she gave him someone else's medication.

- ELEANOR STOREY

Jane Barnard, 66, denies killing Derek Davies, 75, who lived at the care home where she was employed and died on September 8, 2021.

At Gloucester Crown Court yesterday, she pleaded guilty to a second charge that she wilfully neglected Mr Davies between September 5 and September 9 that year by failing to disclose she had wrongfully administered morphine.

Barnard, of Longlevens, Gloucester, was employed as a care worker at Wheatridge Court in Abbeydale, Gloucester, where Mr Davies was a resident when he died.

The court heard that on the morning of September 6, Barnard erroneously gave him medication prescribed for another patient, Jason Dodsworth. The medication she gave Mr Davies included 90mg of slow-release morphine.